Though the game of darts can be played in many different ways, the circular game board is always a necessary component of play. It is a game which is played competitively, as well as in pubs and private homes. The board is usually made of sisal, a strong, durable fiber, with each section lined with wire. The standard dart board is hung so that the bull’s eye is five feet, eight inches from the floor, and the throwing line is seven feet, nine and a quarter inches from the board. For casual play these rules do not have to be set in stone as people are playing just for fun and social interaction.

The rules for playing darts are not complicated. There are usually two teams, each made up of two or more players. Each person is allowed nine throws as a pre-game warm-up. To determine which team or player will go first a dart is thrown by a person from each team. The closest throw to the bull’s eye is the team that will go first. When his turn comes, each player will throw three darts. Then the other side will also throw three darts. If someone accidentally crosses over or steps on the dart throwing line or oche in the course of play; the throw is disqualified and that person must wait for his turn come around again to resume playing.

Darts must remain on the dart board for five seconds to be counted and if sticks into another dart or causes it to fall of the board it does not count. Darts are scored in the following way: in the wedge, the amount posted on the outer ring; in the double ring (the outer, narrow ring) twice the number hit; in the triple ring (the inner, narrow ring) three time the number hit. Bull’s eye (outer bull) is twenty five points; the double bull’s eye is fifty points. Many people enjoy darts and even have their own special sets of darts, imbued with almost supernatural powers, that they will not play without. Dart players are a fun-loving bunch of people who enjoy the company of others in a fun yet mildly competitive way.

Steel tip darts are the originals, the darts that everyone used up until the 1990′s when soft tip darts came on the scene in a big way. Steel tip darts are also the choice of all the big money tournaments, like the Las Vegas Classic and the British Lakeside competition. There is some animosity toward the soft tip darters from the traditionalist darters who believe that the only true darts game uses steel tip darts and Sisal dart boards.

Steel darts are made of steel with a sharpened point so they can stick into sisal or a wooden dart board. Over the years, the steel tip has undergone some innovations, like the Bottelsen No Bounce out darts, whereby the tip of the darts can retract into the object and absorb the sharp impact allowing a forward momentum for the dart to pass and stick into the board.

Another dart used is the Black widow darts, which follows a similar system called a movable point. This form of darts had the added advantage to swivel around the tip and had the same effect as spinning shafts.

These days darts are being manufactured from different materials. Tungsten is considered to be the current demand for material of the dart. It has a superior density with less weight as compared to traditional brass, which increases the chances of hitting three in a bed and scoring 180.

Although, the tips of the dart varies, but the other parts like the shaft, flights etc remains the same. Another difference between darts are their weights. For example, steel tip darts weighs around 18 – 28 gm range, but soft tip darts only weighs upto 20 gm to protect the delicate electronics.

As for maintenance of your steel tips, be sure to keep the point sharp, either by rubbing the tip on some grinding paper or using the shaped carborundum stone you can get specifically to keep steel tips sharp. If you are really flash, you can get battery-operated sharpeners that can do it for you, guaranteeing the correct angle to your point as well.